Shen long
by Yiroma
Summary: GWHP. Harry didn't realise the effects of being a magical Animagus until he shifted into a chinese dragon. 500 years in the future, Wufei visits his family home in China, and ends up meeting the rather unique guardian of the Long clan. Harry05. New ch1&2!
1. Chapter 1: A Much Needed Vacation?

This chapter is a **_rewrite_** of the original chapter one. Right now, it does not properly lead on to chapters two, three, etc… But it will! Please feel free to read what I've done so far. I hope you enjoy the improvements if you're familiar with the story, or just plain enjoy it if you haven't.

Current Pairings: 01x02; one-sided 05x02.  
Future pairings: 05xHP

* * *

In the dark, there was movement. The sounds of something scrambling around, and then a sudden CLICK! before a beam of light cut through the gloom, illuminating dry, stone walls that pressed in from all sides.

"Where is this place?" a voice asked hoarsely. "I don't remember it from the map we were given."

"That thing is too old to be reliable," a second voice said, and the torch swung round the stone walls again. "This place is probably new, where they've moved all the old things from the houses to."

"In here?" the first voice asked incredulously. "I think heirlooms and the like would be safer in the houses that in this thing. Besides, it doesn't look very _new._"

Footsteps sounded as the two people pushed on into the darkness.

"Why else would this be here? A secret entrance at the back of the family shrine- they must have hidden the expensive things away. Why else would they have protected it with that mechanical seal- erm, thingy?"

"I'd have taken the family riches with with me," the other protested. "I think they're wrong; we won't find anything here. Except maybe two hundred years worth of filthy spiders."

"Look, just shut up and-"

There was a heavy thump underfoot and both of the men jumped, the torch beam going wild in their hands.

"What _was_ that?"

"It was me, fool," the second voice responded. "I tripped on something on the floor."

The torch beam swung down, illuminating a pair of sandaled feet and a flash of something large and green.

"Is that what I think it is?"

A hand reached down, pulling with effort. "It is! Damn, if it isn't heavy!"

"A statue of a jade dragon! How much would something like that be worth these days? And who would leave it down here of all places!"

"Didn't I _tell_ you so? I bet you're glad I bought that seal thing from that man now, aren't you? Waste of money, was it?"

"Hey! That guy was _weird_. What were the chances he was really telling the truth about this place?" There was a short pause before, "Is… Is there anything else?"

"Take the torch and have a look. Let me get a better grip on this thing…"

The torch was passed along awkwardly until it reached new hands, where it was swung around with renewed vigour.

Up ahead the walls seemed to suddenly expand in width and height enormously, forming a much larger system of tunnels. Along the walls, the yellow light caught glimpses of intricate Chinese carvings, though they shone like marble where it should only have been bare rock.

"What if this is their ancestral tomb? It looks like a shrine within a shrine to me."

"Don't be ridiculous. And besides, after coming this far, are you really going to run at the thought of a few bones?"

The other man laughed, though it was a little nervously.

They continued onwards, though at a slower pace this time, burdened by the heavy statue.

"Can you hear that?"

"Can I hear _what_?"

"That noise. It's like a rumbling sound."

The torch swung straight ahead, only to hit what looked like a dead end, save that it was a brilliant scarlet colour and looked incredibly smooth to the touch. The torch moved a little more, and a glimmer of gold sparkled back.

"Is that…?"

Almost at once, the steady rumble was forgotten.

"Well, I'll be damned. It looks like gold to me."

"What an odd shape…"

"I'm not going to complain about the shape! Shine the torch on it again!"

The man did as he was told, until all of a sudden the gold began to move. The clump sudden puffed out into an angry array of spines, even as the scarlet wall shifted, running under the torch beam like water.

"What? What is-"

**CHAPTER ONE: **

A Much Needed Vacation?

**Long Clan Compound, China, 198AC**

With a sigh, the elderly man pushed his glasses up his nose for what could easily have been the hundredth time. As the stonework in front of him came back into focus, he examined the half of the broken seal in front of him with frank curiosity.

"Hmm," he said, dragging out the _mmm_-sound for several seconds. "Fascinating. Fascinating. A magical mechanism of some sort. Requiring both halves of a triangular seal. Once joined, they split apart, opening up the way…"

He paused briefly to run a finger over the runic markings on the edge of the seal. Then he glanced across the four meter gap to the other half of the seal, embedded in the rock face there.

The four meter 'gap' was actually the start of a narrow tunnel; although perhaps crevasse was a better description, as there was no apparent top, the two parallel edges towering sharply upwards until they disappeared into darkness.

"The shrine was obviously built in front of this feature. The 'door' to enter it, behind the altar for offerings, would only reveal it on the completion of the seal. Then the two halves would move-"

Here the elderly man backed up several paces, to examine the 'door'. On all his previous visits, it had resembled nothing more the the back wall of the shrine, decorated with the carved relief of a dragon. Had he not had half the seal in his possession, he would have assumed the gap in the raised claw of the dragon design had simply been where a prized treasure had once been removed. But he had known otherwise, which was why he had foolishly placed his half of the seal into position…

Now, with the other half also in place, the door had opened, so to speak. The carved relief had split, leaving write marks on the ground where it looked to have been dragged apart. Decades' worth of dust covered the floor, along with several decorative pieces from the ancestral altar, all of which had been dislodged by the door's opening. Though the worst of the mess had been cleaned in the week and a half since the incident, he had asked that as little as possible be disturbed, so he could examine the scene properly on his arrival.

And truly, there could not have been a worse time to have been away!

No one had ventured into the entry-way behind the altar, on his specific orders. But having only been able to arrive back last night, it was now too late to examine the area as he had wished when he had first heard the news. He had wanted to have a better idea what to expect for when the guest arrived, to convince him of the importance of this discovery.

"The two halves would move," he repeated, "to allow entrance into the heart of the mountain, where the Long Clan text, to quote Long Meng, states the greatest and most precious of their possessions lays waiting."

He glanced behind him briefly, to where his second niece (or was it third?) was stood making notes on her clipboard. "Did you get all that?"

"Of course, Hu – shi," she said, adding the 'teacher' suffix to his name despite their familial relationship.

_Indeed,_ he thought. _Always the scholar in me first._ _Do they know me for much else?_

The work here had consumed his life. And to think, someone else might have gone ahead without him!

Whoever had activated the seal had left shortly afterwards, in a great hurry according to the night watchman, leaving him with more questions than answers. Had they come here looking for treasure? Or perhaps they too had been searching for-

"Hu – shi," someone from the shrine entrance called. "Hu – shi, the guest has arrived."

_Let this last ruse of mine work! _he thought. _This guest, let him help me find the answers I need!_

* * *

**Long Clan Compound, China, 198AC**

Staring at the tall gates in front of him, Chang Wufei felt a shiver run down his spine. Even outside the compound the air smelt old, the ancient buildings almost poisoning the atmosphere. Around the high walls, trees surrounded every side, save for where the mountain's peak rose up at the back. The compound had been built into the side of mountain close to the top, and the air was thinner, colder up here than it should have been. Two or three miles back down, it was a warm, summer day.

"This is the main entrance," the man by his side told him needlessly. "It enters out into the main district where most of the family houses are."

Wufei nodded at the information, though he could see it all clearly enough from where he was with the main gates stood open. Clearly, it was supposed to look welcoming, but the Chinese teen rather thought it might suck him in instead.

"The houses are unfortunately somewhat dilapidated, but we've done our best to preserve what we can…"

What went unsaid was that it would be a lot of money to waste on a place that wasn't really their own.

"It might have been better had we taken up the government's offer to make it into a historic site, but Hu - shi refused. He felt it would be best if we stuck to the ancestor's wishes. He is a renowned academic around these parts, so we decided to trust his judgement in this."

"Why not just sell it after the end of the Long clan?" Wufei asked, more sharply than he had intended.

His guide, a man in his late twenties who had introduced himself as Liu Han, blinked at him in surprise at the question, and seemed to be struggling for an answer.

"The Long clan is not quite finished just yet," a new voice spoke up from behind them.

"Hu - shi!" Liu Han said in recognition, as they both turned to face the speaker.

Wufei regarded the newcomer with some curiosity. It was an elderly man, obviously well into his seventies, dressed in an all-white _gi. _He stood tall and his movements were fluid, betraying him as a martial artist of some type. The glasses he wore on the end of his nose were the only sign that he might perhaps be a teacher (as Liu's respectful _shi_ indicated) or scholar.

"Welcome to your ancestral home, Chang Wufei." The greeting was polite and the smile honest, but Wufei still felt it was presumptuous to act as if he had come here willingly by any means.

_This…_ he thought to himself privately. _This is all Maxwell's fault… _

_000  
_

It started when Duo had walked into Wufei's office at the Preventer headquarters one morning, for something as innocent as to borrow a pen. It had just so happened that Wufei had been checking his mail from that morning at the same time, having found an envelope with a postmark from China in amongst his rent bills for the month. Confused, he had brought it to the Agency with him to open in his free time.

He must have been staring at it for a good few minutes even after Maxwell had burst into his office, for the braided teen had leaned over Wufei's desk and lowered the letter from in front of the Chinese boy's face with a finger.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, meeting his eyes and smiling, although the fact that he held off on one of his creative (annoying) nicknames told Wufei the teen was worried by his distraction. "Is it bad news?"

Wufei blinked at him for a few seconds, surprised by the other's sudden appearance, before shaking himself out of his stupor. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with Maxwell," he said testily. That was unfair to his fellow agent he knew, but the surprise he felt from the letter made him numb to any feeling of guilt he might have otherwise had.

Having worked with people of Wufei's ilk for a good many years now, Duo wasn't the least bit perturbed by his attitude. "You might as well just tell me," the braided teen told him. "I'm not leaving until you say, or, if you keep refusing, I'll break into your apartment tonight and read that letter while you're asleep."

"You wouldn't dare!" Wufei spluttered indignantly. The Chinese agent wasn't sure about that however; Duo was always complaining that he didn't get enough stealth missions to keep his skills honed, so he might feel up to the challenge. Actually, the idea of breaking into Wufei's apartment was probably something Duo would do without any reason at all, just because he would find it amusing to annoy Wufei in such a way. The next thing Wufei would know, Maxwell would have read the letter, and then stolen all his clothes for good measure. But thinking about Duo in his flat, going through his clothes made him flush, and he pushed the thought away quickly.

When Duo only grinned at Wufei's response, the Chinese teen decided it was best to cut his losses and just tell the other boy what the letter said. "These are reports of vandalism to the Long clan's compound," Wufei said.

Duo frowned, understandably confused by this announcement, but uncertain exactly how to broach what could potentially be a sensitive subject. Wufei could imagine what he was thinking- surely nothing on the L5 colony could get any more vandalized when it had been completely destroyed during the war.

"But Wu-man, wasn't your clan compound back on L5?" Duo dared to ask.

Wufei turned to look at the letter again. "It seems that the original homes of the Long clan were placed into the hands of friends when they moved to the colonies from earth. This clan compound still seems to be standing, although apparently after the destruction of L5, a number of other parties took interest in claiming it. The current care-taker has asked me to claim the compound to prevent further trouble from them."

"So what? You've got some fancy estate somewhere in China?" Duo summed up succinctly.

"It seems so," Wufei reluctantly agreed.

"Hey, that's great!" Duo said. "When are you going to go see it?"

Wufei frowned at the other teen. How could he explain to Maxwell that the idea of going to that place made his skin crawl? That his actions during the wars made him feel that stepping into such a place would be disrespectful? Even though Wufei wasn't a true believer in tradition, he knew it as well as anyone else. The clan compound was the place of some of his first ancestors, people he had resolutely stopped himself from thinking about after the war had finished. Had he even paid the proper respect to his more recently deceased relatives? Would his actions have made them proud? Surely not…

"I'm not going to go see it Maxwell. I have no interest in it whatsoever."

"What?" Duo demanded in surprise.

"I'll have nothing to do with that mess," Wufei declared firmly. "Whatever is happening in China is their problem and not mine."

000

But of course, things with Duo Maxwell were never that simple. He had decided to get Quatre Winner involved. Even though the blond director of the Winner Foundation was many, many miles away on L3, he had a long reaching arm, especially when he was convinced he was doing something for the benefit of his friends.

And it might have been easy for Wufei to put a stop to Quatre and Duo's plotting, but for the fact that he was stopped by one person. And that person was Heero Yuy.

Even as he was lead through the streets of the main compound, Wufei fumed at the thought of how he had been tricked. Since when had _Yuy_ got involved in the hair-brained schemes of the ex-pilot of Deathscythe? Oh, that was right, since they had started _dating_. And now Maxwell had the other teen securely wrapped around his finger, even going so far as to convincing Heero to distract him with a mission, while he and Quatre went straight to Une…

_The injustice!_

"I shall take you to the main house," Hu said. "It is the best preserved and, as such, the main target of our would-be robbers."

"If you successfully drove them away, then what do you need my help for?" Wufei asked, trying to make his tone sound questioning rather than rude.

"Actually, we only managed to avoid the buyers who came with cheque books in hand; the robbers are a different matter entirely."

A muffled moan to his left made Wufei turn to glance at Liu, who was frowning at Hu, looking fully disapproving. "Hu - shi-" he began, but was cut off by a wave of the elderly man's hand.

"Of course, of course," Hu said. "I'm not to bother the young, rational thinkers of this day and age with my old superstitions."

Wufei wondered what _that_ was supposed to mean. Though he couldn't fathom it himself, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach told him he wasn't going to like it much either way.

"Ah, at last, the main house."

The building was obviously well cared for, as its arching roofs and parts of the walls looked newer than the rest of the buildings, and it smelt like a place fit for living, rather than the musty, damp air of the smaller buildings. The main doors caught his attention however, as they were decorated with fabulous carved panels that made one large image when they were closed. A roaring dragon snarled outwards at anyone who approached, and the detail was so fine even the scales along the snout were present.

"It is magnificent, isn't it?" Hu said, noting the boy's wide-eyed stare. "The _shen long_ has long been the guardian of the Long clan; there are a great number of stories about it in the family archives that were left behind here. Indeed, it has long been the main focus of my studies."

"It has wings," Wufei remarked dryly.

The old man blinked, looking confused. They both turned to look at the carving once more, eyes taking in the par of huge wings emerging from the creatures spine.

"_Shen long_ do not have wings," Wufei told him matter-of-factly. "This carving is incorrect. None of the statues we had on L5 showed dragons with wings either."

Hu smiled at that. "This carving was commissioned by Chang Cho, a distant relative of yours, some five hundred years ago."

Wufei felt a prickle of annoyance. It was just his luck that a _Chang_ had ordered this huge mistake to be placed on the main doors. "That onna clearly didn't know what she was doing then," Wufei remarked, and brushed past the old man to start up the stairs and into the main house.

"I believe she was thinking about it logically," Hu replied mildly. "Biologically speaking, that carving is much more accurate to life. Or at least, that is what journals by later family members suggest."

"Dragons do not exist," Wufei said. "What does it matter whether it is more correct or not?"

The old man didn't answer, though the smile never left his face.

"We have prepared the main bedroom for you," Liu cut in quickly. "It is to the rear of the house. It should warn you that it's not exactly high-class- over the years the original furniture has been moved into storage to better preserve it, you see, and we only bring up what we need. The bare basics, really."

"That's fine," Wufei replied. "I don't care to have anymore than the rest of you do."

That was apparently the right response, for Liu smiled at him gladly.

_What were they expecting? _Wufei wondered irritably. _That I should come in as a clan head and proceed to expect grandeur and respect? _

"For now, I thought you would like to meet with Liu Mei- my aunt," Liu continued. "She used to help here when she was younger, but moved into the city to become a lawyer later on. When she heard of the trouble we were having with the buyers and the- the thieves, she came to give us some advice on what to do."

_Wonderful,_ Wufei thought. _Several generations of family to whom I shall be indebted for the sake of my clan._

The thought was uncharitable, and he regretted it almost as soon as he had thought it.

"Aunt Mei was the one who found your information out for us," Liu admitted. "None of us would have known where to start otherwise."

"I see," Wufei replied politely.

Liu Mei was a remarkably tall Chinese woman, who stood several inches over the three men who entered the room where she was working. When she stood up to shake Wufei's hand, he felt slightly off-balanced by her timid grip, and the traditional bow she attempted immediately after, which still barely brought her down to his eye-level. Her nephew and Hu – shi made their exit quickly, leaving them alone in the room.

"You must be tired after your long journey," she began, "so I shall get straight to business about what has happened here."

Wufei was undeniably glad about going directly to the matter, which meant he might be able to get in and out of the compound as quickly as possible. At the same time he resented the implication that he might tire merely from travelling, but decided not to comment on it and offend his only hope at a fast escape. He vaguely wondered if this meant he had finally learnt something from that blasted doctor who was always hassling him.

"A week and a half ago, an unidentified number of individuals broke into the Long compound," Mei stated, gesturing to some official looking paper on the desk where she had been working. "They ignored the houses, even this one, and went straight to the family shrine. There, they activated some form of hidden defence mechanism, and accessed an area that not even the workers here were familiar with." She paused to consider her own words. "Well, I am given to understand Hu – shi suspected such a place existed, from his study of the family records, but had not actually managed to open the urm-" she hesitated. "The hidden passage." She said this with a certain emphasis that led Wufei to believe it was a direct quote rather than the phrase she would have personally chosen.

"What is the purpose of this hidden passage?" Wufei asked, curious despite himself.

"Hu – shi believes it leads to a storage area where the Long Clan hid certain _treasures_ they could not take into space with them," Mei said. "For this reason, we believe the perpetrators may have been thieves sent particularly for the items in the shrine."

Wufei considered this. 'Treasures' could mean a great many things. If something were very valuable, it would have been removed from the Clan if the Chinese government had found it aboard the ships they left on. Alternatively, the clan had a long history- if the treasure was of historic value to the country and not just the clan, it would also have been taken from them before they left. Both instances would have necessitated leaving and hiding the treasure where it would not easily be found. A third idea also presented itself- that the 'treasure' was illegal and they could not risk it being shipped with them for fear of discovery.

The last in particular grated on him, but Wufei had been a Preventer Agent for some time now, and the police-like mindset was becoming ingrained.

Then– "You said that Hu – shi _believes_ it leads to a storage area?" Wufei said. "Have you or the police not confirmed this?"

Mei glanced down at the sheets on her desk again. "No," she said. "You see, when the volunteers here discovered that the shrine had been tampered with, they called Hu – shi first, even before the police. He was away at the time, but he did not think it would be appropriate for people to enter a place so important to the Long Clan without express permission…" She trailed off.

_From me,_ Wufei inferred from her pause. "The letter I was sent did not ask for permission to investigate the shrine," he said. "It stated that you wanted me to claim this property lawfully, to deter the buyers from hassling the people working here and deter future criminals. Had I known there was an ongoing investigation, I would have given my permission for police to investigate the crime scene by phone or email. There was no need for me to appear in person."

_Although I have not known the police to be deterred by such a case before. The police had every right to investigate as they saw fit if the people working here reported a crime. Technically, the property does not belong to me, and is in the trust of these people. Their permission should have been enough. Unless-_

Mei looked distinctly flustered. "You see," she said quickly, "that is the thing, they did not call the police."

Wufei stared at her for a long moment. "I don't- That is- _Why?_" he demanded at last.

"Yes, well, only one or two people stay during the night in the compound," Mei explained. "This itself is only a recent development, after a number of buyers seemed to be _overly_ enthusiastic in their interest. But the volunteers did not know about the intruders until they left. Or rather, as they left. Screaming."

"Screaming," Wufei repeated flatly.

"Yes," Mei confirmed. "It seems they triggered some hidden defence the Clan had left behind and it- Well, given that we do not know what condition they left in, we do not know exactly what it did. But the screaming was very loud."

_Wonderful, _Wufei thought._ So on the off chance that these criminals are brought to justice, they can safely level their own lawsuits about inappropriate force. _

"After that, the volunteers called Hu – shi, who advised them that this was a Clan matter," Mei said, "and told them not to call the police." She looked fairly disapproving of this, which raised her somewhat in Wufei's estimation. "He said to leave it in his care."

_Did he really?_ Wufei wondered.

"That was when he asked me to find a way to contact you," Mei said.

"Am I to risk the dangers of this hidden passage then?" Wufei asked sarcastically.

The older woman blushed. "I don't know anything about that," she said. "They would not contact the police, so likely any stolen objects are long gone by now, especially seeing as how we don't know what was sealed behind the shrine anyway. All I know is that I have been asked to advise you on your rights if you chose to claim the compound as your own. The idea that your ownership of the site will take pressure off the volunteers has some merit, so I agreed to help."

_Of course,_ he thought. _If I have claim of the site, all prospective buyers must go through me. Also, maintenance and the provision of security would become my financial responsibility. As volunteers, they could stay on working if they wished, but would no longer be under any obligation, especially if items were stolen. For them, the situation would be a winning one. _

_For me-_

"If you could explain this ownership proposition to me," Wufei said, with a perfectly blank expression.

* * *

Wufei shut his phone with a snap.

_No signal, _he thought moodily. _Is that even _possible_ on top of a mountain?_

He had spent the afternoon in the small office Lui Mei had constructed in the main house, going through papers and old law books. It would almost have been an enjoyable past-time, had the subject so directly involved him. He felt as if there was a crushing weight being deposited squarely on his shoulders, not all of it in monetary value.

_I could sell,_ he thought privately. _I _will_ sell, once this ridiculous thing is over with. Let someone else deal with the Long ghosts._

Saying it, even in his head, made him feel marginally better.

All around him, people were moving in and out of buildings. He counted around fourteen in total, not including the three in particular he had met so far. Apparently, there were normally less people around, but the recent break in had roused the wasp's nest, so to speak. There were inventories to be taken to see if anything was missing, windows and doors to be boarded shut, and new security measures to be implemented. To his right, a security camera was being affixed under the eaves of one roof.

With one last look at his phone, Wufei sighed and put in back in his pocket.

"No signal?" Liu confirmed as he re-entered the main house. "Nobody can get one up here in the compound. It works better outside, if you go up the peak a little more, or into the woods."

"I'll bear that in mind," he replied. He assessed the older man frankly for a long minute, his mind whirling with questions. "Can I ask you some questions about this compound, and the attempted burglary last week?"

Liu looked surprised, but nodded.

"What sort of work do you do here?"

Liu looked relieved at the simple question. "I work as a guide here in the summer," he said. "We open the compound to historical tours then, to bring in some extra revenue you see. The rest of the time I work in a library in a town not far from here. I don't get paid for being a tour guide, but my family has helped maintain this compound for so long, I practically grew up here. It's really no hardship to tell people all the things I've discovered about it." He smiled brilliantly a Wufei as he said this.

The younger man pushed back a sudden feeling of guilt and nodded. "Were you here for the incident with the intruders then?" he asked.

"Oh no," Liu said. "The first I heard of it was the next day, when I came to make plans for the tour season his year. I can't believe anyone would dare do that to a family shrine." He hesitated. "Or that they would find anything before Hu – shi."

_That name again,_ Wufei noted. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hu – shi has spent most of his life working here, whenever he has a chance. He works at a university in New Beijing, but he often takes sabbaticals to continue his research here. He's an AD-Archaeologist – you know, someone who studies the time before the colonies existed."

"Why is he so interested in the Long Clan?" asked Wufei.

Liu looked uncomfortable. "I think his family had business dealings with the Long Clan once over. The way he tells it, he grew up hearing stories about the glorious hey-day of the Longs, and the interest took off from there. He was able to come across a number of their historical journals and records, and found some things which interested him in them."

It was a very carefully worded answer that made the other struggle to suppress a frown. _Business dealings with the Long Clan?_ _And some form of hidden 'treasure'? _

"Where is Hu? Just what does he want me to do about these burglars?"

"I'm not sure," Liu confessed. "I doubt we'll get any more."

Wufei looked at him curiously. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, after what happened to the last two…" Liu trailed off a little uncertainly.

"And just what did happen?" Wufei demanded.

"We're not sure. Rather, none of us except for Hu - shi." The older man shrugged. "He has his theories."

"Why would the compound be robbed now anyway? This place has stood around for years, correct?"

"That's right," Liu confirmed. "We can't say for sure, but the rumour going round is that the intruders might be linked to the people who have been pressing us to sell the property. They would probably know some of the secrets around this place from their own family histories. And with the Long clan dead, they claimed that it would be better for us to sell out, especially seeing as how we would no longer receive any funding from the clan on L5. Our refusal might have made them take more drastic measures."

Wufei took a moment to digest this information. _But supposition and rumour never get you very far_. "I have to ask- why didn't you sell out? Especially if you were being pressured by all these people?"

"Personally, this place is very important to my family and I. We're taken care of it for almost five generations now. The same can be said of other families who work here," Liu told him. "But once again, it seems I must refer you to Hu – shi. He made an argument to many of the clan heads supporting the compound that they shouldn't sell, and funded quite a bit of the up-keeping of this place by himself. If you want to know why, I suggest you ask him."

_There's something going on here that I'm not being told,_ Wufei thought, wanting to scream in frustration. _So much for that cursed Maxwell's idea of a holiday_!

"At this time of day he'll probably be around the shrine," Liu said. "He's been there ever since he arrived back from the university, studying the entrance behind the altar in the shrine. Those intruders… they sure were persistent, I'll give them that. You have to head through an extremely narrow gap, which looks like it goes into the bowels of the mountain, it's that dark. Rather them than me, that's all I can say."

* * *

His intent to move on to question Hu was put to an end by the man having left the compound earlier in the afternoon, but would be returning early tomorrow morning. On hearing the news from a volunteer stood guard outside the family shrine, Wufei had scowled, and wondered if it was worth going to find the man where ever he had taken off to.

_He is clearly a suspicious individual who seems to have a great deal invested in this place, _Wufei thought to himself, watching as the late evening light settled over the houses in the compound. _I cannot link him to the break-in, but he surely has something planned, given how every question I ask seems to circle back round to his name. As Duo would say, he has his fingers in every pie around._

But thinking of Duo made him even more annoyed, in that odd way that it sometimes did, so he looked around in an attempt to take his mind off the other Preventer agent.

His eyes fell once again on the shrine, which seemed to be the centre of many of the current mysteries. He excused himself past the guard, after assuring her he would not try to enter the booby-trapped passage.

The inside of the shrine was all decorated in shades of red and gold, from the carved wood to the aging hangings, and to the floor itself. He stood just looking for a short while, his nose filled with the scent of the offerings placed on the shrine, all of which looked fresh.

It was behind the shrine though, that he finally caught sight of the source of the recent troubles. He was rather impressed that his eyes hadn't fallen onto it the moment he entered, so striking was the image it made. The back wall was made of white stone, polished and engraved with a dragon. But recently, it seemed to have _moved_, in two separate directions, revealing an impossibly tall, black void, that stretched from the floor to above where the ceiling of the inside of the shrine began. The crack in the mountain had obviously predated the shrine, which had been built in front of it. Wufei remembered Liu's description about entering into the bowels of the mountain, and felt it was quite apt.

He skirted around the altar, to the very start of the opening, and felt a hot wind on his face.

_How unusual; I almost expected it to be damp and cold._

He reached out with one hand, and laid it on the inside of the passage.

"_-Why won't you listen? Don't you understand what I'm telling you? My feelings-"_

"_Their care and protection falls to me. Even if I must protect them from-"_

"_-love-"_

"_For many hundreds of years we have been in your hands-"_

"_-I am not just another somebody! I won't be that to you!" _

"_-this is not a competition-"_

"_-your interference no more!"_

"Are you alright?"

Wufei jerked backwards in surprise, and a warm hand grasped his arm to steady him.

He blinked, and his gaze took in the worried face of the guard who had been stood outside the shrine.

"Is something wrong? Did something happen, with the passageway?" she asked.

The young man took in her concerned blue eyes, and shook his head. "I- It's nothing. Thank-you for your concern, but it is unnecessary."

The woman looked unconvinced, but nodded. "I just came to tell you that they are serving an evening meal, if you're hungry."

Wufei nodded, and stepped back away from her and the black void. "Alright, that…" he swallowed, trying to ignore the ringing in his head. "That sounds like a good idea."

* * *

**The Preventer Agency, L1 Colony**

"Are you sure we did the right thing, setting him up like that?" the blond-haired teen on the phone screen asked, his blue eyes narrowed in worry.

"Don't sweat in Quat," Duo told him, leaning back in his chair and swinging his boots up onto the desk in front of him. "Wu-man was in serious need of a holiday and what better place to do it than in China? I'm actually quite envious. I wish _my_ holiday leave was coming up soon. Then I'd drag Heero with me, and we could come get you and then visit Trowa at the circus." The brunette paused to think for a second, before asking: "Actually, where is the troupe now? Somewhere in Germany?"

"That's right," Quatre said with a distant smile. "It might be nice to go see Trowa…"

"When was the last time you saw him?" Duo queried, noting how down his friend seemed.

Quatre and Trowa had always been close friends, during and after the war. He didn't always realise how lucky he was, having Heero and Wufei in the Preventers with him. Sure, they usually all worked completely different shifts, but he could wander over to their offices just down the hall any time he liked, and the weekends they could spend together if they didn't have a mission scheduled. But for Quatre, stuck on L3, and Trowa, travelling on Earth with the circus, time with their closest friends or each other was a rare luxury.

"Ah, well, not in person for two months I suppose," Quatre replied. "But we talk on the phone almost every day when we have time."

"Have you ever thought about just jacking in work one weekend and going AWOL for a while? You could overpower Une with your powerful businessman persona to rescue us, then we could all shuttle on down to Earth for some R'n'R," Duo said. "Surely you've got a bunch of lackeys you can make work in your place?"

"Duo!" Quatre scolded. "I can't give the give that sort of impression to the people I work with! What we're doing on L3 is very important, and besides, even if I _did_ go 'AWOL', I hardly think the rest of you-"

Duo turned away from the monitor curiously as his ears caught the sound of movement outside his office. His eyes flickered down to the bottom of the door, but it was impossible to see if there was someone stood on the other side of it. At this late hour, his office was one of the few with its lights still on, whilst all the corridors were pitch black. To be honest, the Agency gave Duo the creeps at night, but a free phone call was a free phone call, especially on long distant calls. That aside, he also had a dozen files to sort through if he didn't want Heero on his back about being unorganised.

"Is something wrong?" Quatre asked suddenly, startling him from his thoughts about the odd noise he had heard.

Duo swung his feet off the desk, still staring at the door jam. "Don't sweat it Q-ball. I just thought I heard something outside is all. Who knows, it's probably Une out to get me for abusing my phone privileges. I'll be back in a sec."

"Alright," Quatre said with a smile at the joke.

Duo crossed towards the door, his feet making no noise as he moved across the soft carpet. As he turned the door knob though it squeaked a little in his hands and he frowned, mourning the loss of his stealth skills. Surely Une could find more missions like that for him? Something challenging! Like… One gundam pilot against a base of over a hundred armed men, with only a toothpick and the elastic from his underwear to help him get through security…

There was nobody stood behind the door when Duo pulled it open, and the corridor was dark. Directly opposite from his, there was another office, its door stood wide open.

His eyes flickered around, but he couldn't see anyone. Maybe it was his imagination? After all, there wasn't a criminal in the world stupid enough to sneak into the Preventer building.

"Duo? What did you find?" Quatre's voice asked, echoing across the room.

Duo turned back towards his phone, calling loudly enough for the speakers to pick up his voice. "Nothing Q-ball, it's just me. Nerves of a gundam pilot and all. I could do with a good mission to get it out my system. Hey, what do you think to me asking Une for something like this: me verses a hundred armed men wi-"

Duo never got to finish the sentence. It was a shame, because he was betting his joke would have either made the other boy laugh or blush, and either way it would have taken his mind off his problems for a little while.

On his desk, a photo frame shattered around about the same time a sharp pain erupted in his chest. He looked down slowly, a hand coming up to touch at the stain of red that was rapidly forming there.

"Duo?" Quatre's voice asked. The video screen was pointing the other way, and Duo was quite glad, because seeing one of his friends with a hole going right through his chest would do the complete opposite of cheering the blond up.

"What was that noise? _Duo!_"


	2. Chapter 2: Shen long

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own these characters. Obviously. They belong to their owners respectively, and have been mashed together only in this odd fanfiction you see before you.  
_

**_Summary: _**A plot to murder Preventer Agents, a family guardian who is a dragon but was once something else, an Agent in critical condition, and a number of slash pairings. Enjoy!

* * *

"_-Why won't you listen? Don't you understand what I'm telling you?"_

It was a man's voice, desperate and loud.

"_Their care and protection falls to me. Even if I must protect them from-"_

Another man's voice, this one firm and unwavering.

Wufei screwed his eyes shut, and reached up to pinch the brow of his nose. Morning light shone into the main bedroom through one of the three small windows, illuminating the troubled figure sat on the edge of the large bed.

"What was that?" he wondered aloud.

No matter what he tried, his thoughts kept drifting back to yesterday evening, when he had- When something had-

_I think I may have just experienced something similar to what Quatre usually deals with,_ the Chinese agent thought to himself. _As if something separate from me just... invaded my mind..._

The problem was, although he could not deny that Quatre had what people referred to as a 'space heart', Wufei did not really believe in such things normally. His ideas about spirituality were- Well, they had changed over the years.

He tried to rationalise what he had experienced by considering what else it could have been. A subconscious memory of his the passage-way had simply triggered? Part of the booby-trap he had been told about- some type of machine that affected the mind? Both were better ideas than the initial conclusions he had come to.

But the words and the emotions that he had experienced... They had felt-

Wufei shook his head. _No,_ he thought.

Standing up, he said it again to reassure himself. "No."

"_-I am not just another somebody! I won't be that to you!" _

"_This is not a competition-"_

It was time to concentrate on why he had been called here. The sooner he solved the mysteries behind the Long compound, the sooner he could leave.

000

"My orders, sir?"

Bird song filtered down the phone line and into the large office.

"Where are you now?" the man asked.

"I am currently outside the Long compound. Awaiting orders."

"What seems to be the status of 05?"

There was a pause before the man on the other end of the phone replied. "He doesn't appear to be aware of 02's accident," he said. "The signal is poor up here; it is unlikely that any phone calls have made it through."

"Then your orders are simple. Dispatch 05 at once. Perhaps with a little more finesse than your partner used on 02. I want proof of death this time."

"Of course sir."

**CHAPTER TWO:**

Shen Long

Part I

Though Wufei had risen early himself, bothered by strange dreams (which he emphatically _did not_ link with events from the previous day) and the unfamiliar location, when he asked around for Hu it seemed as if the elderly man was already cloistered away in the Long shrine. To his dismay there was no internet access at the compound, and his phone was still not receiving any signal when he tried it. He had wanted to interview Hu with some background information on the man, but that now seemed impossible. It seemed he would have to 'wing it' and hope for the best.

When Wufei finally found Hu, half of him was hidden in the hole in the shrine wall. A woman was stood nearby, a clipboard in hand, with which she was making rapid notes from the inscriptions on various scrolls hung across the walls of the old ancestral temple. There was incense burning on the altar, a heady floral scent he immediately disliked.

Although the man had heard him enter, Hu did not immediately turn to great him, but rather waved him over to the area he was studying without even glancing back at him.

"Come look at this," Hu said.

Wufei bristled at the command, before reluctantly closing the distance between them. He shied away from touching the walls, but told himself it was simply to avoid getting dust on his clothes rather than for any other reason.

Hu jabbed a wrinkled finger at a triangular decoration on one of the walls. "This is half of the seal used to open the passage-way," the old teacher said. "Across there is the other half- you see, there it is, on the other end of this moving wall."

Despite himself, Wufei scrutinised the 'seal' that had been pointed out to him. Each half was the shape of an right-angle triangle, covered in symmetrical carvings to each other. He didn't recognise the letters used.

"This whole wall was a single relief, with a triangular gap for the seal to fit into. But the seal itself was split into two halves, and only one half was here before the intruders came," Hu explained.

Wufei considered this. "Then they brought the other half with them?" he asked.

"It seems so," Hu said, conversely sounding both pleased and angry all at once.

_That implies that they knew the location of the seal, how it worked, and what they were expecting to find behind it._ The Chinese agent frowned. _No, not exactly. They didn't know about the trap which scared them away, which may or may not of been what I-_

To distract himself, Wufei stepped back to look at the doorway as a whole. He reassessed it in ways he had not thought to the previous night, looking for evidence that the wall was mechanical, and designed to move when activated. Strangely enough however, there was none. The movement of the two wall halves had left deep scrapes across the floor where they had moved apart, as if they had been physically dragged rather than separated mechanically or on rollers. Nor was there any evidence of the locking mechanism that had kept the relief locked shut until the second half of the seal was added- no electronic circuits or even a physical lock.

"And we still do not know if they were successful in their mission or not?" Wufei asked, eyeing the dark tunnel with open suspicion.

"No," Hu said. "I did not think sending others in to check would be a good idea, given the circumstances."

Wufei was inclined to agree, on one level. It would indeed be too dangerous for civilians, but had they contacted the police, surely there would have been professionals they could have called in to disarm any traps left inside. He said as much to Hu, who finally turned to look at him.

"I… had good reason to think that was not a good idea," the man admitted. He glanced across to the woman stood nearby, before he turned back to Wufei. "I will have tea set up in one of the houses nearby, if you would care to join me."

Wufei considered the man with a narrowed gaze. _I hate being right,_ he thought irritably, wondering what conspiracies his well-meaning friends had dropped him into so suddenly.

"Very well," he agreed, and allowed himself to be led out of the shrine.

The sun was still busy rising in the sky when they stepped outside, its progress blocked somewhat by the mountain peak stretching up directly in front of it. The whole compound was set directly into the mountain itself, but only the shrine had been set into it in a way that made the building look like a natural growth from the rock itself. It was very ornate, a little too much for Wufei's taste, both the inside and outside carved with intricate patterns and images, not just in normal stone, but in other rare stones which had most likely been imported especially. It was set some way back from the rest of the houses, a large courtyard positioned in front of it, with evidence that at one time it would have been a large, communal area.

As Hu and Wufei headed for the nearest house, they said very little, with Wufei merely taking in the details of the place, now with a more critical eye. What _was_ there here that Hu was so interested in, apart from the history, and could have such importance that it might procure funding worth thousands every year from other clans with no ties to the place?

Inside the nearest house, Hu showed Wufei to a seat and set about serving them both tea. It had been set up with a number of modern conveniences, including a generator so the old electricity supplies in the house would work again.

"What are you looking for here? And what does it have to do with those intruders and that shrine?" Wufei demanded almost as soon as Hu had sat down, his patience all but spent.

The elderly man paused over his steaming tea, clearly choosing his response carefully. "When you were very young," he finally began, "you must of heard a great many clan stories from your parents and teachers."

Wufei's eyebrow rose of its own accord. _That _was a different start from what he had been expecting. "I suppose so. I don't really remember now."

Hu nodded acceptingly. "Yes, I suppose they might seem less meaningful to you these days." He didn't give Wufei time to wonder if he should be insulted, as he continued on. "But the Long Clan has a great many stories, and the Chang also, as their closest relatives, being intermarried so frequently. The clan stories have been passed on for many hundreds of years, not just inside your family, but outside of it as well."

"Where exactly is this going?" Wufei asked. "I have no interest in fairytales, if that is what you are planning to recite to me."

Hu sighed. "No, nobody does these days. Of course, that is assuming that they are, as you call them, _fairytales_, and not actually cleverly hidden facts, that have become somewhat distorted over time."

Hu paused to see if Wufei had anything to add, but the Preventer agent remained silent. Despite himself, he found he was quite curious about where this was going. He took a sip of tea and had to hide his frown in the cup at the bitter taste. Quatre had been spoiling him when he sent all that tea, it seemed.

"The Long and Chang clans were very powerful, as you know," Hu continued. "A great many people in China feared them. At the time when Chang Cho, your distant ancestor, returned here from abroad, China was in the middle of a revolution. In the past, it had lagged somewhat behind other countries in terms of technology, trade and power, but now it was catching up at a furious rate. The Long clan made a series of wise investments, and in that climate their influence soared. They became very rich and very powerful, on not just a local, but international scale.

"In other aspects however, China became very unstable. There were a great many dangers to this new expansion, and the Long clan became a very important target to a lot of people. Fortunately, when Chang Cho came home, she did not do so alone."

Hu stopped for a moment, evidently unsure how to proceed. Wufei marked his hesitance as important. _She did not come home alone? What does that mean?_

"The Long clan and Chang clans grew in importance, gradually at first, but then in leaps and bounds that was truly remarkable. They were considered the height of modern China- a perfect blending of old traditions and culture, but bound with new western promises. But their success inevitably provoked a number of less savoury opinions. Eventually, attacks against them became quite frequent. People died. A great many, if records are anything to go by. Not many of them had anything to do with the business side of the Long clan, but that made them even more likely targets."

"How despicable," Wufei spat. "Such unjust behaviour could not go unpunished."

"No," Hu said, "indeed it did not. Chang Cho's family was approached, and a formal request was made for intervention, as one record states. It was granted. The attacks slowed down, and eventually stopped altogether. Rivals suddenly found themselves in bad situations, business-wise or politically. Those that didn't stop even then quite suddenly disappear completely from record in China, and nothing remains of them, not even in the places where they lived. The Long Clan became, effectively, the most powerful family in China, possibly even more so than the government at that time. As you know, eventually that power made them hated and feared rather than respected, until they were driven from Earth completely."

There was a moment where both of them stopped to consider this last fact. _Where they were wiped out completely._

"I don't understand," Wufei said. "A request for intervention was made of the Chang family? Then they were responsible for the… _removal_ of other people that had attacked the Long Clan?"

"Not precisely," Hu answered. "This is where fairytales come in I am afraid. You might lose your interest somewhat. History tells us what happened to the people that opposed the Long family- namely their disappearances- but not how. Only the Long and Chang families knew that, and all their facts were passed on only as legends. Other people can read and hear these stories, but not understand the true content of them. One in particular is called, 'How Flying Woman Leashed Shen Long', a somewhat poor translation of the Old Chinese from five hundred years ago, I will admit. Despite its somewhat fanciful wording, it is, in fact, the story of Chang Cho, and the weapon she brought with her when she married into the Long Clan."

Wufei blinked, taking this fact in. Then he felt his stomach drop. _And there it is,_ he thought. _The answer to all this. A weapon that brought China- no, nearly the whole world towards the end- to its knees in fear. And now the Long Clan is dead, everyone wants to get their hands on it._

"I see you have worked out where this is going," Lam murmured. He lifted his tea in a mock toast. "And so you see my life's work."

"You're looking for the weapon. You and all the other clans," Wufei said in realisation. Then he started violently, and set down his tea cup with a clatter. "But wait, if you think the weapon was sealed behind the shrine, then isn't it possible that those intruders might have _stolen_ it already?"

His mind whirled with possibilities. A weapon of unknown danger, possibly stolen and in the hands of individuals who may or may not have plans to use it. At the very least, they would either intend to sell it to someone who would, or would keep it as leverage with the threat of violence against others.

At Wufei's accusation however, Hu merely sighed. "I doubt that. Their less than silent exit would imply they ran into trouble during their exploration of the passage. Furthermore, from what I have read, it seems only someone from the Chang family will be able to work this weapon. At least, that is what I have divined from the texts available. Possibly some sort of genetic marker. Well, that is how I have explained it to the people who fund my research, at any rate."

Wufei longed to reach over the table and shake the old man in front of him. He wished he were a truly dishonourable person, who would have no qualms about beating an old man for the answers he wanted.

"But that isn't true?" he demanded.

"Oh, no!" Hu hurried to assure him. "This weapon will only work for the Chang family. Of that I am almost certain. But not so much because of science, but out of its own free will. _Shen long_ is alive, after all."

In the sudden silence, a wisp of smoke curled into the air from the teacups abandoned on the table.

"I beg your pardon?" Wufei asked, slowly.

"Sometimes, people try to unravel a good story a little too much," Hu told him, looking remarkably straight faced for someone who had made such an odd suggestion. "The investors are imagining something garish in metal I imagine, built to attack only certain targets. Perhaps something like one of those mobile suits that were flying around the place not too many years ago now."

Wufei, who had been considering the same thing, frowned. Like Zechs Merquise's Gundam, originally built a few centuries ago, the idea of an early mobile suit was not unlikely.

"But I am not talking about that," Hu said. "My research has lead me to a somewhat different conclusion. I am referring to the namesake of the Long clan. The family guardian, a red and gold _dragon_."

Wufei paused. His mind whirled around the words, trying to make sense of them in a way he could understand. Except he couldn't. "I don't think I understand what you're trying to say," he said, measuring his words carefully.

Hu took a long sip of his tea. "No, I suppose you don't," he said. The old teacher regarded him for a long moment. "Back before their exile, my family used to have business dealings with the Long Clan. This was before my time, but some of the stories passed down about the Clan were truly- Well, extraordinary, I suppose. They were always told to me almost as fairy stories, but years of academic research have led me to form my own conclusions, not just about the Long Clan but about a whole group of people who…"

Hu paused. "I'm afraid I have digressed somewhat. The legend I told you about before, about Chang Cho, it only dates to five hundred years ago. Though they had only begun to dream up the ideas of colonies in space back then, they were still all men and women of science. Yet amongst all that, there is a new dragon legend being told!

"I've studied the legend for years, every detail of it. It is most fascinating. And not like the older legends of the clan- it's set quite firmly in the history of that period. I honestly believe that what people took for a fanciful imagining is actually the truth behind the Long clan." Hu stopped to take a fortifying breath, before continuing. "At first, I believed that the most I would find here was evidence that a dragon had once existed here, which would be a discovery in and of itself. What might science learn from the discovery that such things we took as legends really did exist at one time? The story ends, you see, when the dragon seals itself away in the mountain, to be called upon when the clan is in grave danger. That part may have been fanciful, but then those intruders revealed the way to me- the entrance in the shrine that you saw earlier. And then I knew I had to contact you at once. The only survivor from L5, and a Chang at that, perhaps you could achieve something I had not, now that I knew where to find the _shen long_. It was even more important that this happen now, as the funding for this project has been running out lately- people are losing patience with me to find what they imagine to be some dreadful weapon for them. Now, they just want to tear this place down and find it themselves. But the dragon, the evidence for it…" Lam trailed off, his eyes somewhat unfocused.

Wufei stared at him, assessing his words. "You think a dragon lives in that narrow hole behind the family shrine?" Wufei asked, inwardly pleased that he managed to keep his voice level.

"That is what I am saying," Hu replied, looking oddly resigned. "Ever since I first heard the stories about Cho Chang, a woman from five hundred years ago who brought one back to the clan, I have imagined that-"

Wufei held up a hand, quelling the man's words. "You honestly believe that a dragon is a more likely answer to the Long Clan's power than a man-made weapon?"

"I think, if you knew some of the things that I do, you would not find it so unlikely," Hu said quietly, but with such conviction that it was oddly unsettling.

"I see," Wufei replied. He let out a deep breath into the now silent room.

Then, in one swift motion, he slammed his hand down onto the table with a furious bang. His tea cup jerked onto its side, and rolled back and forth on its rim helplessly, whilst the young agent muttered several angry expletives, each one in a different language. To his credit, Hu managed to keep his composure in the face of Wufei's sudden temper, his gaze directed towards a painting on one of the walls.

_What rubbish! _Wufei fumed. _This man is unbelievable! A _dragon_ to protect the clan?_

"You are-" he began, but cut himself off.

He stood up quickly, his mind whirling as it sought to process everything he had just learnt, both real and imaginary. He headed for the door, already reaching into his pocket for his phone.

"Where are you going?"the old man enquired after him.

"To make a phone call!"

000

_This is not a holiday,_ Wufei thought irritably as he trekked out the compound, allowing his phone to lead him as he hunted for a signal. _This is a mission! Now I have to locate a dangerous weapon wanted by dozens of power-hungry people in China, which may or may not still be on site. Even worse, my only informant is an old man who should clearly have been locked away somewhere years ago. _Unbelievable_. The next time I see Maxwell, I am going to _kill_ him. Right after he makes himself useful by finding me some information I can actually use down here. _

The minute Wufei reached the thinner trees on the mountain just to the left of the compound, his phone began to buzz furiously. _Twelve missed calls? _he wondered in alarm, recognising the numbers of Trowa, Quatre and Heero respectively. The last call was from Heero, and he quickly pressed redial, wondering what had happened.

It wasn't as if he hadn't noticed that Duo's number was oddly absent.

After a few long moments the phone was suddenly answered on the other end. "Chang," Heero greeted.

Wufei blinked. Heero's tone was… odd.

"Status?" came the immediate demand, and Wufei felt the first stirrings of genuine worry.

"I'm in the middle of nowhere Yuy, I'm perfectly fine. Now what's going on?"

There was a moment of silence before Yuy replied. "02 was shot last night."

At once it seemed as if the ground had dropped out from under him. Only a moment ago, he had been preparing himself to yell at that same teen, for sending him out to this awful place, where everyone was completely insane. But now-

"Is Maxwell-"

"He is currently in critical condition. It was a chest wound and they're still working on him even now."

That explained the odd voice. Yuy didn't want to think it was Maxwell undergoing surgery at this very minute. Couldn't bare to think it. Neither could he, even. But Yuy was distancing himself from the situation; Maxwell was 02 again, just another pilot, not a friend, and certainly not a boyfriend.

"How did this happen?" Wufei asked, and it was a question, a plea and a demand, all rolled into one. "I wasn't aware he was working on any missions right now."

"He wasn't," Yuy answered. "It was an assassination attempt within the Preventer building."

"In the agency?" Wufei repeated incredulously. The _audacity_ of that assassin.

And to target Duo, of everyone there.

On the other end of the phone, another voice could suddenly be heard. "Is that Wufei?"

_Quatre,_ Wufei realised in surprise. _He got there very quickly._

"Hnn," Heero confirmed, and there was a moment before suddenly the blond teen had taken control of the phone.

"Wufei!"

"Winner," Chang greeted. "What is going on up there?"

"Maxwell is in surgery at the moment," Quatre told him, sounding tired and drawn with worry. "Somebody managed to infiltrate the Preventer headquarters and shoot him while he was still in the office. He was on the phone to me at the time. I was worried when he didn't reply, and I phoned security to check on him."

"That probably saved his life," Wufei told him.

"I shouldn't have kept him on the phone so long in the first place," Quatre replied. He paused before saying, "You have to be careful. We're uncertain whether this was a one off attack or not. I've already contacted Trowa and he's on his way, but we were worried when we couldn't get in touch with you."

"I'll come straight away," Wufei told him, all thoughts about a supposed secret weapon forgotten in an instant. "Keep an eye on Yuy until I get there."

"Of course," Winner replied, sounding relieved.

"I'll arrange a flight the minute I get off this cursed mountain," Wufei told him. "Hopefully I'll be there by-"

Wufei felt a sudden flair of pain, and the phone display exploded outwards even as he held it to his ear.

0

**Medical Floor, Preventer Agency, L1**

Quatre squeezed his hand round Heero's phone tightly as the dial tone filled his ear suddenly.

"Wufei?" he asked with difficulty, as he tried to stop his words from shaking.

There was no reply, but then he really didn't expect one. He moved the mobile away from his ear and stared at it for a long minute.

"Is something wrong?" Heero asked, from where he was stood nearby, his gaze fixed on the operating theatre doors.

"It's Wufei," Quatre said.

Heero turned to glance at him sharply, and even though his face remained blank, Quatre _felt_ the suddenly flair of panic that rocked through Heero's emotions.

"We… just lost Wufei."

Part II

**The Long Compound.**

"For many generations we have been in your hands, _Long Shen_,_"_ the man said, spitting each word like acid.

Between two figures, a solid stone wall was grinding into place.

"But now I have decided for all of us- that time is over, and _your_ time is up."

One of the figures was standing; the other was propped awkwardly against one side of an uneven tunnel , an arm wrapped around his middle. As the wall slid shut between them, the light entering the tunnel shrank down to only a sliver, barely enough to illuminate the tired, green eyes of the man left inside.

The man stood outside met them squarely. "And take my love with you, Harry."

"Heisui…" Harry murmured, trying to convey a million and one unspoken things in that single name, only for all of them to go unheard.

Then the wall slid completely closed, and he was plunged into complete darkness.

Outside, he heard a _click_ noise, and knew it was the spell coming into effect. It started immediately, a heaviness in his limbs, and a clouding to his thoughts.

"Heisui," he said, even though he knew the other could no longer hear a word he said. "What have you done to yourself?"

Then, all of a sudden, his body doubled itself into knots.

"Ugh!" Harry gasped out, throwing his other arm around his middle.

He was going to lose control of his human form!

All around him the tunnel sides began to press in on him, not yet literally, although that would soon be an issue. If he didn't get further back inside the tunnel, into his sanctuary, then he would be crushed between the walls as his body grew bigger.

_Very clever, Heisui,_ he thought, even as his mind became further clouded. _By using this spell, I won't have a chance to try and undo the locking charms you have on that door. I'll have to retreat, and by then, your spell will have-_

Staggering upright, Harry moved with uneasy steps down the tunnel, away from the feet stumbled as he tried to put one in front of the other, and his shoulders took a beating from where they kept colliding with the stone walls. He felt several more lurches around his middle as he went, each one more powerful than the last, until the final tug left him on his knees.

Before his eyes though, the tunnel walls suddenly opened out, and he dragged himself the remaining few meters into the space beyond.

He was just in time too, as he felt his human form explode outwards, bone grinding and skin stretching until- He lay on the ground panting, although he was now considerably larger than he had been before.

_If I can get to the back entrance,_ he thought, _I can leave in this form. Even a spell like this won't be a match for my strength when I'm like this. _

_I can't move,_ Harry realised in surprise, after a few moments of calling on his limbs to work- _please work! _But his efforts proved futile, as they wouldn't so much as twitch. _I'm so tired now, my body won't respond anymore._

His eyelids were drooping, and the scenery around him was blurring in and out of focus.

"_-I am not just another somebody! I won't be that to you!"_ a familiar voice echoed through his increasingly addled mind.

_Heisui…_ he thought.

_Heisui, how long are you going to leave me like this?_

_Forever…?_

…

…

"_Hello there. Are you supposed to be all the way out here?"_

_The five year old craned his head back to stare up into the tall tree. He leaned so far over backwards, the next thing he was falling onto his bum with a thump._

_Before he could stop himself, Harry had let out a snicker at the sight. Leaves rustled as he stood up on the thick branch he had been resting on, before he leapt lightly down to land in front of the child. "The Forbidden Forest isn't forbidden because it makes a nice playground, you know." He tipped his head to the side, scrutinizing the small boy. "Then again, you're a little young to be a Hogwarts' student…"_

_The small boy just stared at him for a long time, and Harry sighed, wondering if he must have scared the boy too badly with his… appearance. Unthinkingly, he reached out with his hand to pull the boy to his feet. "Come on then, I'll-" Then he paused, seeing the boy was staring at his red tinged hand. He withdrew it sharply. "Hey, don't be scared, alright? It's just- Oomph!"_

_The little boy laughed as he hugged Harry tightly around the waist._

What…? _he wondered in surprise, startled by the sudden boldness. _

_The child buried his face into the soft material of his jumper, and sighed contentedly. After a long minute, Harry's hands finally came to settle around those small shoulders, hugging the boy back. _

"_You're a pretty weird kid," he said. Then he noticed something. "…Huh, looks like you've been tagged."_

_Freeing one of his hands he tugged at the collar of the child's tee-shirt, to where one of his parents had sewn in a name tag. "Rei Long," Harry read aloud. "Long? Does that mean you're Cho's kid? What are you doing here though?" _

_Rei giggled at the question, earning a sigh from the other. "Alright, I guess I'd best take you back. Cho's sure to be in a panic now…"_

_After coaxing Rei to relax his grip on his waist, the two walked side by side through the forest. Rei managed to grab Harry's hand with his own, and smiled as he was led towards a distant tree line. Harry couldn't help but glance down at him every now and then, one eyebrow raised above amused, green eyes. All to soon they reached the edge of the forest, where a familiar lake glimmered in the distance and, past that, the stood the soaring turrets of a large castle. _

"_Go on then, Rei," Harry said. "Just go straight ahead. And I'll watch from here to make sure you get there, so don't try anything." _

_To his consternation, Rei frowned. He tugged on Harry's hand, attempting to pull him out the tree line along with him. _

"_Stop it," Harry said, though his voice was still gentle. "Go to your mum, alright? She'll be looking for you."_

_The small boy shook his head, black hair whipping through the air at his vigorous denial. _

"_Well… what's wrong? What is it?"_

_Rei tugged at the hand again, and uttered the first words he would ever say to Harry._

"_Mine!" he declared. "Mine, mine, mine!" _

…

…

_I don't think that kid ever left the 'mine' stage,_ Harry thought to himself in amusement. _If it caught his interest, then it was his, no matter how old he got._

With a sigh, he shuffled across the ground, stretching out his limbs and-

_I'm awake,_ he thought blearily.

-Only then he wasn't, as his dreams pulled him back under.

…

"_This is my son, Shen Long," the pretty woman was saying proudly. "I wanted the two of you to meet."_

_Harry leaned over the moses-basket curiously, taking in the tiny bundle inside. Blue eyes stared up at him without fear, two tiny hands tucked under the curve of a chubby baby face. Harry had seen many, many babies, but they never ceased to amaze him when he saw one up close._

"_He's got wonderful eyes," Harry said. "Do you think they'll stay that colour?"_

_The woman smiled at the compliment. "I'm hoping so, Shen Long. Another week, and we should know for sure. But I think they will- they look just like his fathers."_

"_His father?" Harry asked. "Is he here too?"_

_The woman looked away. "No. My husband, he-"_

_Harry considered her for a long moment. "He was killed by Long protestors then."_

"_Two months ago," she confirmed._

_Harry sighed. "I'm sorry," he said. "I wish I could have acted faster on that, for everyone's sake."_

"_Nobody blames you, Shen Long," the woman said, inclining her head respectfully in his direction. "We're grateful for all that you do for us. The protests have stopped again for now."_

For now,_ Harry repeated grimly, remembering the fires and the explosions and the shouted slurs. _For now. Is that really the best I can do?

"_Have you decided on a name yet?" he asked instead, turning his mind from those darker thoughts._

"_Heisui," the woman answered. "Chang Heisui."_

…

Two green eyes snapped open, and Harry was suddenly very wide awake and aware.

For a long moment, in that place just on the edge between sleep and waking, there had been nothing but that dream of the distant past. Of many years ago, when Rei had been the head of the Long Clan. And the dozen that had come and gone since then, ending with-

_Heisui! _his mind shrieked. His body sought to comply with his sudden need for movement, limbs bunching and contracting, muscles screaming and aching. A rumble started in his chest as he remembered-

_I'm awake,_ he thought, and stopped.

He _was_ awake.

He could move, and he could think, and he wasn't the least bit tired.

_The spell has ended?_ he wondered. _Does this mean…_

But he wasn't sure what it could mean. Anything was possible.

_I actually woke up before,_ Harry thought, remembering a brief moment of lucidity amongst his many dreams. _But then I went back to sleep? Was the spell removed then, then?_

With some difficulty, he managed to arrange his body into an upright position. It took more effort than it should of, and as he moved he noticed dust slid off his body and floated in the air. Just how long had he been asleep for that to have gathered?

The most important thing was to leave the cavern and its twisting tunnels as quickly as possible. Once he was outside, he wouldn't have to worry about being sealed away again, and he would have the time he needed to think about what was going on.

_Which entrance? _

_The back, _his mind supplied_. That spell could only be removed from the front entrance, so that is where the people will be gathered. So if I leave through the back, I can avoid them until I want to see them. And if there are some people at the back entrance as well, I will at least be greeting them in _this form,_ which should give me the upper hand. _

He turned to the larger tunnel to the back of the cavern he had slept in, and somewhat ungracefully shuffled across the floor towards it.

His scales brushed over the rock sides of the cave, filling the tunnel with a sound similar to scraping sandpaper. It was irritating, but not painful, and the glimmer of brilliant light from directly ahead indicated that both the tunnel and that annoyance would soon come to an end. He didn't think it was just his imagination that the cave now seemed tighter than ever.

It was a sunny day.

The light was momentarily dazzling to Harry, whose eyes felt unusually sensitive. Scaled lids shut briefly, before golden neck ruffles extended, casting a shadow over his face that would work as a sort of shade.

Twisting his neck from side to side, Harry took in his surroundings with some curiosity. The cave entrance was deserted, without even any fading scents for him to pick up.

_Where did all these trees come from? _he wondered, stepping forward a few paces into the veritable woodland that seemed to have surrounded his home. His body slid round the trunks with some difficulty; it would have been easier to simply knock them down, but that would have made too much noise.

He considered shifting forms again, which would help him move quicker. _But my senses will be duller, and Heisui might catch me unawares again-_

All at once his stomach gurgled uncomfortably. Harry sighed, but quickly stopped when a wisp of flame shot out at the same time.

_Wonderful,_ he thought. _And now I'll have to find something to eat before I go feral. The problems keep on piling up, as usual._

But what to do first?

_I'll scout the area. _Harry looked at his surroundings uneasily. _These trees, they didn't just spring up over-night…_

_Don't think about it!_

There was a bad feeling fluttering somewhere in the vicinity of his rib cage. It was making his heart flutter, and his pulse bounce in his ears. He was trying to ignore it, trying to push it down, except… Except…

-BANG!

With a startled snort, Harry whipped his head around to stare in the direction from which the sound came. It was an odd noise, from some distance away, but a very familiar one. It had become increasingly common as unrest increased in China over his family.

A scream of pain made his ears quiver slightly, and they swivelled to and fro on his skull to indicate his unease.

_What is happening here!_


End file.
